TASMANIAN

MOTORCYCLE CLUB

SPOKESPOKENewsletter of the Tasmanian Motorcycle Club. March 2019.

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PRESIDENT'S REPORT

OUR first race meeting of the year was held on the 10th March which was

also the first round of our revamped State Championship. The meeting was an

outstanding success with some very close racing. Big thanks to all our officials

and organisers who made it all happen. Ken Young contacted many of our past

and elder members who attended and had a get together upstairs in the

function centre. The next round will be held at Baskerville on the 14th April,

hope to see you all there .

LAST Sunday Alwynne and I took my Honda 1300 on a ride organised by

Scott’s Motorcycles which left the shop at 10am and wound its way through

the twisty back roads to the Forth pub for a counter lunch and then home

through some more winding roads. It was good to see several club members

attending. Tina has promised to organise another ride later in the year with

maybe an overnight stop somewhere. I will keep you all posted.

Cary McMahon

Hon. President

klINTRODUCING: EMMA READER

How long have you been in the club?

.About four years.

What was your first road bike?

A 2012 Honda CBR250

What was your first racing bike?

That's complicated. I was the first one to

ride the club's Ninja, then I borrowed Simon

Legge's Kawasaki ZX6 before Jason Spencer lent

me his spare CB00 and I knew I had to have one.

The CBR is the first proper race bike that I've owned.

What would you consider your career highlight?

The last race meeting last year when I had some

great battles with Rob Scott, Dennis Kearnes and Adam

Cameron.

What would you still like to achieve in

racing?To get quicker.

If money was no object,

what bike would you

like to race?

One of everything, so I could race what I

wanted, but not anything silly like a MotoGP bike.

What's your job?

Hairdresser.

THE club held its annual meeting on March 7.

Voting saw the following committee members elected for the next year:

President Vice President Secretary

Cary McMahon Graham van Essen

Assistant Secretary Treasurer & Competition Secretary

Quentin Blazely Karen Webb

Clinic Co-ordinator Publicity Officer Public Officer

Rob Scott

Website Administrators

Matt Smith

Mtas Representatives

Matt Smith

Rob Scott

General Committee Members

Scott & Tina

Honeychurch

Trevor Renton Eleanor Renton Derek Singline

James Gisbonn Brett Grey

SYMMONS PLAINS RIDE DAY: MARCH 9Pics by Ken Young

QUOTE FROM RIDE DAY PRACTICE, BY TARAN OCEAN

"I thought I could brake a Moto3 at the same point as a GP125 ... it seems you can't"

LOOKING BACK: WITH KEN YOUNG

ROUND 1 of the new Tasmanian Road Race

Championships at Symmons Plains was a fantastic success on

many fronts. Racing was great, weather was perfect, entries

were exceptional, and much history was talked about.

BEFORE the event, I came up with the idea of inviting

as many older (retired and should have retired) riders as

possible to celebrate the return of the state championship.

Starting out I was hopeful of getting about 20 people until mate

and fellow competitor Barry Lack, now living in Hobart, came

on board. Continually finding email contacts for riders

state-wide and sending to me as well as contacting riders and

pumping them up. A few days before the event the latest Old

Bike Australasia came out with a story about 40 people turning

up to a reunion in Western Aus. I set the bar higher, with the

hope of bettering that group.

SO, between us on the day it looked like we encouraged over 60 people to attend and from

the phone calls that night and reports later everyone had a great time.

Pole position went to 90 plus years old Geoff Martin and wife Beth, who was Ian Tilley’s secretary

at his Shell Westbury Road Service Station when he added a showroom to start selling Yamahas.

Geoff made his name racing at places like Valleyfield and Quorn Hall. Also, from that era was Sam

Hughes whom you can get to know more about in a few issues time of Old Bike Australasia when

my story on him is published. Ray Stone was another almost from that era but back then he was

riding as a Victorian on some powerful British machines before taking to the newfangled Yamaha

125s.

MOST of the rest came from the era known as the Baby Boomers when the Japanese

factories were taking over from the big British bikes. The start of the 1970s became a golden era in

racing with so many able to take up racing on factory produced racing bikes and then the uniquely

Australian Production racing that lead to the Superbike class.

WHERE is the history and value to the club in all this? Let’s start with the announcement

that the club was going to run Round 1 of the TRRC. I then came up with the idea of inviting the

riders to add a little more to the prestige of the event. It needed something to encourage it, being

round of the TRRC.

WHICH set of records do I go to, to find out how long it has been since the last TRRC? All

I had was 100 Clicks and by re-reading the relevant section, 2000 was the last year I mentioned the

TRRC. On my computer I found 2000 was the last year I had the placings for the TRRC. Next was

to ask a few riders who placed in those results, with them all thinking it was close but couldn’t be

certain. OK so no one was sure so I decided I must be close enough to be able to promote that it was

19 years since a TRRC with the old riders and with the media.

THAT is until I received an email telling me I was wrong, the last was 2003. How do I

confirm that? The only option I could think of was to go to the library (and spend hours) trolling

through old copies of the Examiner. Not to find results as I knew very little was being sent to them

for printing. But to find the Motorsports supplement I worked on each year. The stories I wrote at

the time didn’t mention Tassie racing just MotoGP. The calendar I did for them had race meetings

listed for 2002 but no number next to them to indicate it being a round. 2003, no meetings listed at

all but the National Historic MX at Deloraine was, and I do remember talking to club members at

that event trying to drum up support to keep the club going and get Road Racing going again. Is

2000 the last or was 2003 or somewhere in between, as the History officer it disappoints me greatly

that I can’t go to records and find out.

I had already contacted many media outlets and old riders with the 19-year gap in the TRRC

being the lead to promote it. So unable to confirm or disprove it I pushed on. Fortunately, Andrew

Eagling came on board offering to contact TV networks to see if they could come out.

Unfortunately, he was then to go into hospital for “an unscheduled tune up”. Channel 7 News did

come out and do a comprehensive story and that prompted The Examiner (who saw it) to contact

Peter Sanders to write a report for them.

Saturday’s ride day, was the only opportunity I had to take “race” photos for a report for Australian

Motor Cycle News that should be in the April 1 issue on the Club Line page. I asked some riders

whom I expected to be battling for class honours to do some laps together for the slightly stages

race shots. Thank you one and all because I have been able to send “action” shots to go with the

report.

THE next part of the photo promotion was the Old Bike Australasia shots for their Out and

About pages with a few words that the editor tells me will go in the next issue. I also had to supply

8 shots of old riders for the social page in The Examiner, as organised. Hopefully by the time you

read this it will have appeared. The “mug shots” were done in the half hour I had for the lunch

break instead of doing silly things like eating and finding out information about what had happened

during morning racing. The added difficulty was that I couldn’t find my normal camera lens in my

bag and had to take them with a “long lens”. Fortunately, at race end someone found the short lens

up at the hairpin where I was on Saturday and handed it in. Again, Thank you.

THE point of this story is to show that many people put in a big effort to make this meeting

a success. Not to mention Karen who provided a TV and computer, added programs and club

calendars for the guests to view, Michelle and Tina who helps dispense coffee and bickies provided

by the club and the riders who made the guests welcome down stairs, plus others who helped but I

didn’t see as I was tied up most of the day doing commentary.

Those guests are a very important part of the club history and that has stood out to me recently. In

the last few weeks a few football clubs in Tassie have folded through lack of interest. That was then

shown in an interview with the coach of the North Melbourne Women’s team when asked how he

was able to get the new club to gel and work together. The answer was to firstly get them to hear

and understand the clubs long and proud history.

HISTORY, I keep banging on about it but to survive a club needs to have it and people who

believe in it and can talk about it.

Ken Young

Tasmanian Roadracing Championships, Round 1 Pics "courtesy" Susan Jane Images

These are just a few of the photos Susan took at Symmons Plains in March and that I nicked

from her Facebook page. High-resolution copies of her pics are available for sale, Contact her at

susanjaneimages@gmail.com

The first-time rider who The long-time rider who did.

didn't finish last in all her races

HAVE your say. Members' letters, opinions and comments will be published in the next available newsletter. Email items to

tmccmag@gmail.com

THIS is the forum for TMCC members to have their say. (If you have any items you think will be of interest to

members, please email them to tmccmag@gmail.com)

THE next meeting of the TMCC committee will be held in

the first-floor meeting room at the Gunner's Arms, Lawrence

Street, Launceston, on Thursday, April 4, at 7.30pm. All

members are welcome, so come along and have your say.

The second round of the Tasmanian Roadracing

Championships, will be held at Baskerville on

Sunday, April 14

Online entries will open via Ridernet in the coming week